Clock drawing test: performance in Alzheimer’s disease

Abstract

The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a common neuropsychological measure sensitive to cognitive changes among older adults. This article objective to compare the performance in the CDT among Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and elderly health. Seventy elderly, over 60 years old, of both gender, were selected 47 as controls and 23 with AD. The mean and the standard deviation scores in the CDT were 7.8±2.2 for the control group and 4.9±2.3 for de group with AD (p<0.001). The effect size was calculated in 1.30 with 34.5% of overlapping. The CDT can be used as an instrument of screening to help in the diagnosis of the elderly with dementia. However, the performance in the CDT is not a good predictor of the dementia in the initial stages of the AD due to the great amount of overlapping with the normal elderly.